The Olynthiac Orations (I - III)

Notes

THE FIRST OLYNTHIAC

(_Note_.--Most of the allusions in the Olynthiacs are explained by the
Introduction to the First Philippic.)

Sec. 4. _power over everything, open or secret_. The translation generally
approved, 'power to publish or conceal his designs,' is hardly possible.
The [Greek: kai] in the phrase [Greek: rh_eta kai aporr_eta] (or [Greek:
arr_eta]) cannot be taken disjunctively here, when it is always
conjunctive in this phrase elsewhere, the whole phrase being virtually
equivalent to 'everything whatever'.

Sec. 5. _how he treated_, &c. The scholiast says that Philip killed the
traitors at Amphipolis first, saying that if they had not been faithful to
their own countrymen, they were not likely to be faithful to himself; and
that the traitors at Pydna, finding that they were not likely to be
spared, took sanctuary, and having been persuaded to surrender themselves
on promise of their lives, were executed nevertheless. Neither story is
confirmed by other evidence.

Sec. 8. _in aid of the Euboeans_: in 358 or 357. See Speech for
Megalopolitans, Sec. 14 n.

Sec. 13. _Magnesia_. There seems to have been a town of the same name as the
district.

_attacked the Olynthians_. This refers to the short invasion of 351 (see
vol. i, p. 70), not to that which is the subject of the Olynthiacs.

_Arybbas_ was King of the Molossi, and uncle of Philip's wife, Olympias.
Nothing is known of this expedition against him. He was deposed by Philip
in 343. (See vol. ii, p. 3.)

Sec. 17. _these towns_: the towns of the Chalcidic peninsula, over which
Olynthus had acquired influence. This sentence shows that Olynthus itself
had not yet been attacked.

Sec. 26. _But, my good Sir_, &c. This must be the objection of an imaginary
opponent. It can hardly be taken (as seems to be intended by Butcher) as
Demosthenes' reply to the question, 'Or some other power?' ('But, my good
Sir, the other power will not want to help him.') There is, however, much
to be said for Sandys's punctuation, [Greek: _ean m_e bo_eth_es_eth umeis
_e allos tis_], 'unless you or some other power go to their aid.' After
the death of Onomarchus in 352, the Phocians were incapable of
withstanding invasion without help.


THE SECOND OLYNTHIAC

Sec. 14. _Timotheus, &c_. In 364 an Athenian force under Timotheus invaded
the territory of the Olynthian League, and took Torone, Poteidaea, and
other towns, with the help of Perdiccas, King of Macedonia.

_ruling dynasty_: i.e. the dynasty of Lycophron and Peitholaus at Pherae.
(See Introd. to First Philippic.)

Sec. 28. _this war_: i.e. the war with Philip generally. The reference is
supposed to be to the conduct of Chares in 356 (cf. Phil. I, Section 24
ii.), though in fact it was against the revolted allies, not against
Philip, that he had been sent. Sigeum was a favourite resort of Chares,
and it is conjectured that he may have obtained possession of Lampsacus
and Sigeum (both on the Asiatic shore of the Hellespont) in 356. The
explanation of the conduct of the generals is to be found in the fact that
in Asia Minor they could freely appropriate prizes of war and plunder,
since under the terms of the Peace of Antalcidas, Athens could claim
nothing in Asia for her own.

Sec. 29. _taxes by Boards_. Each of the Boards constituted in 378-377 for the
collection of the war-tax (see vol. i, p. 31) had a leader or chairman
([Greek: __hegem_on_]), one of the 300 richest men in Athens, whose duty it
was to advance the sums required by the State, recovering them afterwards
from the other members of the Boards. Probably the Three Hundred were
divided equally among the 100 Boards, a leader, a 'second', and a 'third'
(Speech on Crown, Sec. 103) being assigned to each. The 'general' here
perhaps corresponds to the 'second'.


THE THIRD OLYNTHIAC

Sec. 4. _two or three years ago_ (lit. 'this is the third or fourth year
since). It was in November 352 B.C. If the present Speech was delivered
before November 349, not quite three years would have elapsed. (The Greek
words, [Greek: triton _he tetarton etos touti], must, on the analogy of
the Speech against Meidias, Sec. 13, against Stephanus, II. Sec. 13, and against
Aphobus, I. Sec. 24, &c., mean 'two or three', not 'three or four years
ago'). The vagueness of the expression is more likely to be due to the
date of the Third Olynthiac being not far short of three years from that
of the siege of Heraeon Teichos, than to the double-dating (on the one
hand by actual lapse of time, and on the other by archon-years--from July
to July--or by military campaigning seasons) which most commentators
assume to be intended here, but which seems to me over-subtle and unlike
Demosthenes.

_that year_: i.e. the archonship of Aristodemus, which ran from July 352
B.C. to July 351.

Sec. 5. _the mysteries_. These were celebrated from the 14th to the 27th of
Boedromion (late in September).

_Charidemus_, of Oreus in Euboea, was a mercenary leader who had served
many masters at different times--Athens, Olynthus, Cotys, and
Cersobleptes--and had played most of them false at some time or other. But
he was given the citizenship in 357 for the part which he had taken in
effecting the cession of the Chersonese to Athens, and was a favourite
with the people. He was sent on the occasion here referred to with ten
ships, for which he was to find mercenary soldiers.

Sec. 6. _with might ... power_. A quotation, probably from the text of the
treaty of alliance between Athens and Olynthus.

Sec. 8. _funds of the Phocians are exhausted_. The Phocian leader Phalaecus
had been using the temple-treasures of Delphi, but they were now
exhausted.

Sec. 10. _a Legislative Commission_: i.e. a Special Commission on the model
of the regular Commission which was appointed annually from the jurors for
the year (if the Assembly so decreed), and before which those who wished
to make or to oppose changes in the laws appeared, the proceedings taking
the form of a prosecution and defence of the laws in question. The
Assembly itself did not legislate, though it passed decrees, which had to
be consistent with the existing laws. As regards legislation, it merely
decided whether in any given year alterations in the laws should or should
not be allowed.

Sec. 11. _malingerers_. The scholiast says that the choregi were persuaded to
choose persons as members of their choruses, in order to enable them to
escape military service, choreutae being legally exempted. Other
exemptions also existed.

Sec. 12. _persons who proposed them_. This can only refer to Eubulus and his
party.

Sec. 20. _Corinthians and Megareans_. From the pseudo-Demosthenic Speech on
the Constitution ([Greek: _pe_ri suntaxe_os_]) and from Philochorus
(quoted in the Scholia of Didymus upon that Speech) it appears that the
Athenians had in 350 invaded Megara, under the general Ephialtes, and
forced the Megareans to agree to a delimitation of certain land sacred to
the two goddesses of Eleusis, which the Megareans had violated, perhaps
for some years past (see Speech against Aristocrates, Sec. 212). A scholiast
also refers to the omission by Corinth to invite the Athenians to the
Isthmian games, in consequence of which the Athenians sent an armed force
to attend the games. Probably this was also a recent occurrence, and due
to an understanding between Corinth and Megara.

Sec. 21. _my own namesake_: i.e. Demosthenes, who was a distinguished general
during the Peloponnesian War, and perished in the Sicilian expedition.

Sec. 24. _for forty-five years_: i.e. between the Persian and Peloponnesian
Wars, 476-431 B.C.

_the king_: i.e. Perdiccas II, who, however, took the side of Sparta
shortly after the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. He died in 413. (The
date of the beginning of his reign is unknown, but he did not become sole
king of the whole of Macedonia until 436.)

Sec. 27. _Spartans had been ruined_: sc. by the battles of Leuctra (in 371)
and Mantineia (in 362).

_Thebans had their hands full_, owing to the war with the Phocians, from
356 onwards.

Sec. 28. _in the war_, when Athens joined Thebes against Sparta (in 378).
'The allies' are those members of the Second Delian League (formed in 378)
who had been lost in the Social War which ended in or about 355, when
Athens was at peace with Thebes and Sparta. (See Introduction, vol. i, p.
9.)

Sec. 31. _procession at the Boedromia_. The Boedromia was a festival held in
September in honour of Apollo and Artemis Agrotera, Probably a procession
was not a regular part of the festival at this time. The importance which
the populace attached to such processions is illustrated by the Speech
against Timocrates, Sec. 161.

Sec. 34. _is it then paid service, &c_.: almost, 'do you then suggest that we
should _earn_ our money?'

Sec. 35. _adding or subtracting_: sc. from the sums dispensed by the State to
the citizens.

_somebody's mercenaries_. The reference is probably to the successes of
Charidemus when first sent (see Introd. to Olynthiacs).